Using metacognition effectively

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WordSearch! Work as a pair with your talk buddy Look carefully at the words you have been given Which words do you think belong together? Why do you think these words belong together? How are you deciding which words are linked? What do you think the linked words mean? How do you know this? What principles are you promoting?

Why develop thinking skills and assessment for learning in the classroom? ACCAC Metacognition Making sense of the task Knowledge and understanding of strategies and methods Knowledge and understanding of thinking process and principles Monitoring and evaluating learning Making connections What do I have to do? How do I know? Where have I used this before? How do I know? What could I use here? Why did I use it before? How did I get here? What do I need next? What worked well? How will it next help? SMT pack 2009

Why develop thinking skills and assessment for learning in the classroom? ACCAC SometimesAlwaysNever Categorise the questions which follow on the next slide according to how likely they are to encourage and develop metacognition! Remember, you will be asked to justify any decisions made… You may wish to consider improvements to questions to help them move category!

What is photosynthesis? Where have you used diamond ranking before? How will you carry out your internet search? Why will you carry out an internet search? Is the source biased? How do you know? What did you find difficult about the activity? Can you tell me about your story? Why do you like this book? What do you like about the picture you have drawn? How is this similar to your earlier design? Should this improve your answer? Where did you get that idea from? When will you do this again? What do you think about this poem? Is there another way to do this?

Managing metacognition It is NOT a plenary – it should happen at all stages of learning! It needs to be modelled initially – otherwise learners will be Confused and answers will be very low level and/or irrelevant It needs to have a purpose Initially, it needs to be collaborative It is most effective when it is used to deconstruct the processes used. Reflecting on the extent to which success criteria is fulfilled can be metacognitive but more often it concentrates on the outcome produced not the process It will take time and practice!

P M I Metacognition – the practicalities

(Lauren Resnick, 1987) It is non-algorithmic (the path of action is not fully specified in advance) It tends to be complex (the total path is not mentally “visible” from any single vantage point) It often yields multiple solutions (each with costs and benefits rather than unique solutions) It involves nuanced judgement and interpretation It involves the application of multiple criteria which sometimes conflict with each other It often involves uncertainty (not everything that bears on the task is known) It involves self-regulation of the thinking process (we don’t recognise higher order thinking in an individual when someone “calls the play” at every step) It involves imposing meaning (finding order in apparent disorder) It is effortful (there is considerable mental work involved in the kinds of elaborations and judgements required)

Popular tools and strategies for managing metacognition Primary Language of thinking and learning Mr Frog reflection Metacognitive caterpillar Reflection triangle PMI diagram Reflection mobiles Secondary Language of thinking and learning Reflection triangle PMI diagram Scaffolding questions Metacognitive caterpillar (modified!)

Success criteria Learning journey (process) How I learn What is this like? Reflection Clouds (core) Where have I used this? How have I used this? What happens next?

What is this like? Where have I used this? How have I used this? What happens next? Where have I seen this before? What strategies/tools did I use then? Where have I used this idea before? How is this similar to…? How is this different from…? Where have I used this idea before? Where have I used this strategy/tool before? What happened then? Why did I use that idea/tool/strategy? How did I use the strategy/idea/tool? How useful was it? What happened? What might happen if..? How will I know if..? How useful was this? How does this help me? What might happen if..? How will I know if..? What improvements can I make?

Scaffolded Reflection I understood better when……. The thing that really helped me today was…… To improve I could….. I could use this strategy when….. The next time I could…. After talking to…. The thing I found most difficult was…. One idea/thing I still don’t understand is…. One thing we did Today that made me realise…. After reading, I….

Reflection mobiles - examples What do I know about this? How do I know this? What else could I find out? How shall I do this? Why should I do this? What did I do first? Why did I make this decision? How did my original ideas change? What are there alternative ways of looking at this? What improvements can I make? SMT pack 2009

Language of Learning Asking questions Reading/ Researching Writing/ Recording Listening Thinking/ Work on own Work in group Share ideas Discuss Observe SMT pack 2009

Language of Thinking Compare and Contrast Sequence Classify Predict Evaluate Imagine Model Look for patterns Make decisions Give opinions Make links Ask questions Review SMT pack 2009